Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25
Trend:
Some media reports that allegedly 40 servicemen of Azerbaijani armed forces were encircled and after a lengthy shootout they broke it, and that eight people were wounded, are not true, said Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry in a message July 25.
"This information is provocative," read the message. "This news purposefully spread by the secret services and hackers of Armenia don't correspond to reality, and unfortunately, some local media, having succumbing to this lie, are bringing false information to the public."
The Ministry of Defence said it once again brings to attention that before spreading any information about the situation on the contact line, it needs to be clarified with the ministry itself.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.